BY GRANT BALDWIN
The exact system used by thousands of coaches, consultants, authors, and business owners to earn $500 to $100K per speaking gig… allowing them to increase their impact, income, and ability to travel (… and how we can GUARANTEE you results).
Are you a coach or consultant that helps people achieve BIG things in their lives and businesses?
Or perhaps an entrepreneur, business owner, or author… who has specialized knowledge to share with others?
If so, the world is waiting for your message! So the question is, what’s holding you back from getting booked and paid to speak?
If you’re on this page, then we can agree that you have reached a point in your personal or professional life where you have refined your message, and now want to passionately share it with a wider audience (and be compensated handsomely for it).
Maybe you’ve even done some quick research on the pathway to becoming a paid speaker, and figured a few things out… but you’re just not quite there yet.
It feels like you’ve ticked all the boxes, but for some reason you’re stuck. You’re still missing that “something” that will really help catapult you to the next level.
If you’re looking to get booked and paid to speak this year, regardless of where you are in your journey, you’re on the right page.
Here’s what I’m going to share with you on this page…
If you’re selected to enroll in our coaching program, do the work, and still don’t get booked and paid to speak through this program, we’ll give you a full refund. But due to the 100% money back warranty and unlimited coaching offered, we only select 10 students to work with per cohort.
Before we get started, it’s important to note who will benefit from this content (and who won’t).
If any of these sound familiar to you, then I want to reassure you that you’re in the right spot….my team and I are excited you’re here!
I’ve been speaking professionally for 10+ years now and have given over 400 keynote presentations to audiences as large as 13,000 people.
I don’t say any of this to impress you or to brag! I just want you to know I’m an expert on this topic and understand where you’re at in your journey.
The thing is, while those statistics look impressive…I can assure you that I didn’t start out that way.
When I started out in 2006 I was “just a normal dude.” There’s no crazy backstory, and definitely no celebrity following. All I knew is that I had a message to share, and a dream to make it happen.
After 10 years of trial and error, and thousands of speaking events later, I developed a system to get consistently booked & paid on a regular basis, which ultimately became the inspiration for The Speaker Lab.
Have you ever felt frustrated, overwhelmed or stressed with your speaking business? Maybe you’re at a crossroads and don’t know where to go, or which step to take next?
Well that is exactly how I felt too…and The Speaker Lab is the resource I wished was around when I started my speaking business back in 2006!
The Speaker Lab was founded in 2016, and since then we have helped over 10,000 speakers through our courses, training programs, and book.
Of those 10,000 speakers, they…
Let that sink in for a moment…
The collective impact of these speakers, and the ripple effect that they’re having on their audiences, has guided The Speaker Lab in our mission to continue to…
“Give speakers clarity, confidence and a clear path to make an impact.”
But enough about me. Let’s get back to you, why you’re here, and why NOW is the best time to launch your paid speaking career.
I’m excited you’re here, and I’ve got so much to share with you…so sit back, grab a nice warm beverage and lets get started.
You may not know this, but virtual speaking and training has been around for a long time. It’s just never really been viewed as a viable option, both from the speaker side and from the event organizer side.
But what happened during COVID, is that people were forced to start seeing it more as a viable option.
And it’s not going to go anywhere soon as the chart below shows. Check out the massive uptick during COVID…
Virtual has created a completely new speaking market that largely did not exist before, which means…
As we discovered above, virtual events during COVID skyrocketed…but what happened to live events? Well, as you can see in the chart below, they almost went away.
What we’ve been seeing happening since COVID with virtual events…they aren’t going anywhere!
But also take note of what’s going on with live events…they have bounced back and are stronger than ever!
What does this mean for speakers? The answer can only be described as massive opportunity!
So I want you to think about this demand as a kind of built up energy. Speakers are wanting to get in front of audiences… and audiences are wanting to meet up, get together and network with each other.
They’re tired of being in a virtual environment…especially those people that love in person events and conferences. They just want to get together!
This is all adding to a continued build up of energy, and is one of the reasons why now is the best time to get started. As the momentum for in person events grows, you want to be in a position to capitalize on that excitement. It’s time for you to get on board!
This is your “yellow brick road” that you need to be following to grow and develop your speaking business. Not that you should be following…or that you could be following.
It’s what you need to follow in order to build and grow your speaking business in any industry, on any topic, in any economy.
Here at The Speaker Lab, we came up with a resource that I wish I had when I began my speaking journey. We help aspiring speakers get consistently booked and paid to speak through our SPEAK Framework™, or the business side of speaking.
Here’s a quick overview…
Select a Problem to Solve
Prepare Your Talk
Establish Yourself as an Expert
Acquire Paid Speaking Gigs
Know When to Scale
NOTE: Want a shortcut to get hundreds of speaking leads HANDED to you, your own personal website and demo video built FOR you, and a GUARANTEED paid speaking gig? Click here to get started!
Now, let’s go ahead and dive into each one of these a little more…
Whether you’re just getting started or have been speaking for years, zeroing in on the right problem to solve for the right audience and industry will make a dramatic difference in how much (and how frequently) you’re paid to speak.
Although it may feel counterintuitive, the more specific, narrow, and focused you are, the EASIER it actually becomes to find and book gigs.
This step will prevent you from spending years fighting an impossible battle trying to get booked for topics that don’t have an existing (or paying) market.
It’s obvious that delivering an outstanding talk can go a long way in getting you more paid opportunities. But how do you actually create one?
What specific actions can you take to fine-tune an existing presentation that’s “pretty good” and transform it into something unforgettable?
This step will teach you how to create keynotes, workshops, and seminars that will captivate your audience and inspire event organizers to give you referrals and repeat bookings.
You do NOT have to be the world’s leading expert in your field in order to get paid to speak.
You do, however, need to demonstrate some level of expertise. And as long as you know enough about your topic to deliver presentations that engage your audience, trust me—you have more than enough expertise.
But none of that will matter if you don’t know how to properly communicate your expertise to decision makers. And the two biggest key marketing assets you need in order to do that, are a rock-solid website and a compelling demo video.
First, let’s talk about websites…
If you don’t have a website, you just won’t be taken seriously as a speaker. In fact, here’s what Tec Clarke, one of our students sent to us…
Building incredible looking websites is actually one of many things we do for students here at The Speaker Lab.
Here’s a screenshot of some of the websites our team has created for our students…
On the top left, we’ve got Ben Fagan. He’s a former baseball player who helps students and educators redefine success for optimal performance. Then on the top right, you’ll see Lina. She works with providing solutions for women’s global rights issues.
On the bottom left is Robin Reed. He actually helps companies and organizations to get unstuck. Then on the bottom right is Dan Parris. He works with nonprofits and entrepreneurs to do work that matters.
Finally, in the center we have Carrie. She’s another one of our students here that helps teams design inclusive work cultures.
Again, those are some screenshots from websites that we’ve created for students here at The Speaker Lab.
Next, let’s talk about demo videos…
Here’s how I want you to think about a demo video. I’m going to relate it to one of my favorite experiences about going to the movies. There’s actually a lot of things I love about going to the movies. You’ve got the popcorn, the reclining seats, the music and the big screen, right?
I love all those things…but right at the top of the list for me are the previews.
I absolutely love seeing the previews, and a lot of times I try to watch them before I even get to the theater. And this is how I want you to think about your demo video.
If you are going to walk away with just one thing today, then it needs to be this…
Demo video equals movie preview.
So think about what a movie preview is. One of the biggest pieces of advice I can give to you about your demo videos is that you’ve got to keep them short. And by short, I’m talking two minutes….maybe three at the most.
If you’re like… “I just can’t. I gotta have this extra 60 seconds. I just gotta have it,” then cap it at three minutes maximum. But two minutes is perfect
The biggest area of opportunity that I see with people, is that they’ve created a demo video that’s way too long. I’m talking like 10, 20, sometimes even 40 minutes long!
That’s not a demo video. That’s a whole talk and no one’s going to watch that.
The demo video’s purpose is just like a movie preview’s purpose. It’s to give you a taste of the movie, and make you want to see more of it, right? It needs to capture your attention in those first few moments.
And then if people want to continue watching, great! But ultimately, what they’re looking to determine is… does this person do the thing that I’m going to pay them to do?
So once again, demo video equals movie preview. Think about what a movie preview is. It’s got an intro. It’s got an outro. It’s got transitions. It’s got music. It’s got voiceover, it’s got action shots. All of those pieces encompass what a movie trailer is.
Your demo video needs to have the same thing.
Creating incredible and engaging demo videos is another thing we do for our students here at The Speaker Lab.
Here’s a screenshot of some of the demo videos our team has created for our students…
On the top left, we’ve got Rachel Cooke. She helps leaders to build better teams. Then on the top right, you’ll see David Nicols. He speaks passionately on climate change.
On the bottom left is Aditi. She teaches on breaking through barriers to success. Then on the bottom right is Jack Kunkel. He’s a medical doctor who works with companies to shift their workplace culture, and simplify wellness in the workplace.
Finally, in the center we have Vanessa Broers. She helps leaders in healthcare find better work-life balance.
Make no mistake here, your website and demo video are like the packaging that lets buyers preview a product before buying.
So… why is a good website and demo video important? It’s because buyers equate high quality packaging with value.
When your packaging is of value…people will value what’s inside.
If you want others to take you seriously as a speaker, then you have to take your marketing assets seriously.
Take a look at what Andrew Buerger, another of our Speaker Lab students, sent to us…
So there’s a couple things I want to mention on this front.
There’s two ways to get the word out, and acquire paid speaking gigs. You can be passive in your approach, or you can be proactive.
Here’s how I would define those two options…
Option #1 – Passively. This is where you’re utilizing mediums like social media, blog posts, podcast, videos, etc
Option #2 – Proactively. This is where you’re going directly to decision makers.
I’m here to tell you right now, if you wanna find paid speaking gigs, you’ve got to be proactive. I’m not telling you that you can’t take these passive approaches, and I’m certainly not telling you that you can’t do your social media or podcasts or blog posts. I know they’re fun and people enjoy doing them.
But if you’re looking to get booked and paid by doing that passive approach, it’s not going to work. Again, I’m not telling you that you can’t do those things – just that you shouldn’t expect to get booked and paid for doing them.
That passive approach is just waiting and wishing. And I’m here to tell you, it’s just not a successful strategy.
The best potential clients are those who already book speakers, and I’m going to illustrate that by using me as an example…
I’m a speaker, right? That means I want to be in the business of connecting with event organizers and individuals that already hire speakers…to convince them that I’m the best fit for their event.
I do not want to be in the business of convincing people that they need speakers, or that they should hire a speaker. See the difference?
I’m not interested in trying to convince you that you should hire a speaker. I’m more interested in convincing you that I present the solution to the problem that your audience has…and you already hire speakers.
And so how do you find those? Well, let me share with you one of the easiest, simplest ways to do this: Google.
You can literally do this right now. You can go to Google, type in your audience and/or topic keyword, then the “plus” sign, and then any number of relevant words you’d like to choose.
You can then interchange these words as much as you want. I’ll give you an example.
Let’s say that I speak in the leadership development space for corporations and associations. And my primary area that I speak on is being intentional…like, really intentional, in all walks of life.
I know that’s very high level, but just hear me out on this because I know it’s going to be a real light-bulb moment for you.
So if I were to go do this, I could just type in [leadership + conference], and it would give me a massive amount of pages and lists in Google.
I could get more specific and type in [leadership + conference + intentional], which makes it more specific.
If I wanted, I could even get more specific and type in [leadership + conference + intentional + men] if I wanted to find those men’s events.
And I can even interchange all of those words…
So, let’s say I swap out the term conference with convention…or event…or association. Then it would give me a different set of lists.
I could even do variations of the words. What about if I interchange intentional with intentionalism? It’s gonna give me different things, and get a completely different list. See how you can do this in a dozen different ways and get different lists. Pretty awesome!
So that’s the process to find the list. Then, once you have that list of opportunities, you want to contact the decision maker.
How do you do this? Well, it’s very simple…
Let’s say I did that whole process, and created the list. I typed [intentional + leadership + conference + women], and I found an event. I click through to the event page, and it’s piquing my interest.
I then start looking for a very specific someone to contact (I’m definitely NOT looking for “info” or “contact us” email addresses).
Then I’m going to reach out with a simple email…
Subject: Looking for the right person…
“Hey [event organizer],
Quick question…who books speakers for your [event name]?”
Best Regards,
[my name]
Then I hit “send”. That’s it.
NOTE: Want a shortcut to get hundreds of speaking leads HANDED to you, your own personal website and demo video built FOR you, and a GUARANTEED paid speaking gig? Click here to get started!
Notice that I’m not sending the event organizer everything about me, or writing 10 paragraphs of blurb, outlining everything that I’ve ever done.
Why? Well there’s a couple of reasons.
First, the event organizer doesn’t know me. So initially I’m trying to build a relationship with them. After all, we’re in the relationship building business…
Second, tell me what you do when a really long email from a complete stranger arrives in your inbox? If you’re anything like me, then you would skim through it, just like I do.
And then when you realize, “I don’t know what this person is talking about, I’m not even the right person”…you hit delete and move on.
Remember, all we’re trying to do is engage at a very easy level. We hit them with a quick question, about a very specific event… and that’s it.
When you perform your cold outreach in this way (without all the unnecessary fluff and overwhelm), it drastically increases your chances of a reply.
They may respond back with something like, “yes, that’s me…” or “that’s not me, this person you need to speak to…” or “we’re not booking speakers until next year…”
Whatever the response is, you’re just trying to get a response, so then you know what to do next. Remember, this is a relationship building business. Do NOT try to seal the deal on the first date.
It’s really as easy as that, and I’m telling you right now… this works.
But that’s why it’s step four in our SPEAK Framework™, and not step one. You’ve got to do steps one, two and three before you get to this step.
Now more than ever, generating revenue and impact as a speaker isn’t limited to just speaking from the stage. This leads us to our next step in the framework which is…
Remember I said earlier that we are in the problem solving business? Well, speaking on stage is just one way to deliver your solution. You may end up doing…
You can do all of those things in fact, just not all at once – sometimes you’ve got to pump the brakes a little bit.
You’ve got to have a process and a system that’s very specific to the industry and the niche that you speak to.
So let me ask you a question…
Can you do this? Are YOU ready and willing to do the work necessary to make an impact and income from your message?
You know, I love this ancient Chinese proverb…
“The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.”
Remember I asked you earlier… What would speaking allow you to do that you currently can’t? If you want that, then you’ve got to be willing to plant the proverbial tree. Just like Mark..
We get testimonials like these every week. I love hearing these from our students, and I’d love even more to see YOUR testimonial next!
Option #1 — You can spend countless, frustrating hours, like many people do…trying to make sense of it all…stumbling your way through. And maybe one day it all comes together…maybe.
Or…
Option #2 — You could take the fast track, get step by step help from professional speaker mentors who are in the trenches with you.
We have time set aside in the next few days to speak to you personally about how you can apply these strategies to your business.
Even if you’re just getting started!
On that 1:1 call our team is going to help you create a plan and a strategy, to make your goals happen… FAST!
Then, IF you want us to help you, and we think it’s a good fit, we may invite you to become one of the new students we take on in our Elite program. That will be after we create the plan, and really dive in one-on-one with you.
In our Elite program, we will walk you through our proven program that’s designed to help you build a predictable flow of speaking gigs that will…
If we work together, here’s some of the things we will do for you…
What happens next?
We don’t just work with anyone and everyone…and while we are very selective, we want to have that call with you. To start that process…
So…I’m going to make it super easy for you to get the process started, and here’s what I want you to do. Simply click the link below…
Spaces are limited, and there’s only so many people we can talk to on any given day, so go and book your spot now.
When you go to that link, you’re going to see an ORANGE “Apply Now” button…
You fill in a couple questions (which will take less than a minute), then it will give you a bunch of different options for when you’d like to speak to us.
Just choose the appointment time that you want, and we will call you at that time to do your break-through session with you.
And again, on the break-through session, our team is going to do some real work with you. They won’t be just reading from a script either.
They will be doing a deep-dive and asking you things like…
If the only thing you got out of that call was just clarity on the fact that you should be charging more…or this is the level that you should be charging…wouldn’t that be worth your time?
Or what if all you got from that call was just clarity on, “Hey you know what, this is who I speak to and this is the problem I solve…wouldn’t that be worth your time?
And look, I know that if you have read this far down the page, something in your speaking business could be better…right?
Whatever challenge you’re running into, I promise you we’ve seen it, we’ve coached on it, we’ve trained on it, and we know how to fix it. Let us help you.
I promise, we’ve got you! Together we will figure out exactly what we need to fix and exactly what we need to change. You can then go forward with confidence and a crystal-clear game-plan for how you can get from where you are today, to where you want to go.
Even if you don’t schedule a call with our team, promise me you will NOT give up on your dreams of being an in-demand, highly paid speaker. And promise me you will use my 16 years of experience to avoid the mistakes so many people make.
Don’t go on trying to speak to everyone in every niche, hoping to solve every problem for them. Don’t take on speaking gigs without being fully prepared. Don’t continue to try marketing yourself without professional packaging. Don’t email event organizers with paragraphs of fluff trying to sell yourself.
And if you get the chance to speak, don’t do it halfway. Fully MAXIMIZE the opportunity.
Deal?
That’s all I ask… do not settle!
That’s all I’ve got for ya! I hope you enjoyed reading and I do hope you click here to learn more about how we can help.
If you’re selected to enroll in our coaching program, do the work, and still don’t get booked and paid to speak through this program, we’ll give you a full refund. But due to the 100% money back warranty and unlimited coaching offered, we only select 10 students to work with per cohort.
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